Lose a Battle, Rape Some Girls

“The next morning as they were breaking camp they were attacked by a war party of Cheyennes led by Chief Medicine Water. John and Lydia German, their son Stephen, and daughters Rebecca Jane and Joanna were killed and scalped. The Indians then took any goods they deemed usable and set the wagon afire. Captured and eventually taken into the Texas Panhandle were Catherine, age seventeen; Sophia, twelve; Julia, seven; and Addie, five. The Germans were victims of the Cheyennes’ retaliation for their losses at the second battle of Adobe Walls on June 27.

After a scouting party from Fort Wallace came upon the scene of the massacre a few days later, the military campaigns against hostile Indians in the Panhandle were intensified. In the meantime, the German girls were subjected to exposure, malnutrition, and occasional maltreatment as their captors traveled southward. Catherine, in particular, recalled instances of gang rape by young “dog soldiers” and indignities at the hands of Cheyenne women, particularly Medicine Water’s obnoxious wife, Mochi (Buffalo Calf Woman). Eventually Julia and Addie were traded to Grey Beard‘s band, who for the most part neglected them. Grey Beard steered his following down the east side of the Llano Estacado, while Medicine Water joined with other groups and moved down the west side, probably crossing at several points into eastern New Mexico.

Is it fun to gang rape?

By November 1874 Grey Beard had set up camp north of McClellan Creek, about ten miles south of the site of present-day Pampa. On the morning of November 8, Lt. Frank D. Baldwin‘s column charged the Indian encampment. So complete was the surprise that the Cheyennes abandoned the village and left most of their property intact. Riding through the deserted camp, William (Billy) Dixon and other army scouts noticed movement in a pile of buffalo hides; they were astonished to find Julia and Addie German, both emaciated and near starvation. Dixon later recalled how hardened scouts and soldiers turned aside to hide their emotions as the little girls sobbed out their story.”

Post navigation

Oh, my. Those poor girls. What a sad history. Our nation has so much trauma in its past. National trauma and personal trauma. And your questions certainly point to why rape is a crime and an act of violence, not a consensual act.

I guess every nation has its sad history and ours probably isn’t even the saddest. I think most people avoid inflicting huge traumas on others and quietly go about trying to do their best–not always succeeding of course, but then there are the others who are led by their basest emotions to actions that are terrible. What part of yourself do you have to shut off to participate in gang rape?

People say we live in a rape culture–I think that’s an exaggerated claim. Most men don’t rape.

I wonder if we often think of male dominance without thinking of the areas of our culture that women dominate. If we only see the attainment of worldly success in terms of money, etc. then maybe men dominate, but then they do on average spend more time in the workforce. But women tend to dominate in child rearing, as elementary school educators and now in many classrooms as boys fall behind girls.

People often say that when women take over a field the salaries go down, but I wonder if that’s because more people entering the workforce drag down salaries or because up until recently men were given salaries with the expectation that they were going to be taking care of a family. And women tended to want to leave their jobs to raise their kids (generalizing here).

I question whether we all don’t focus too much on who gets to dominate whom –men and women, one culture over another, etc. In the end it all seems a problem of ego that I can’t imagine being resolved. People don’t just want things–they want MORE than what others have–whether it be rights, talents, money or land.

I think I need to find something more uplifting to think about now–so I guess I’ll visit your blog where I’m reminded that no amount of power or money compares to a soul who freely gives of herself with wonderful poetry, fairy tales and grace. You inspire me, Brenda!

I understand the need to prove our “team” is better because we all have egos, but I don’t really understand hiding what other teams did in the past and trashing our own team especially since it’s not accurate. Why not try to honestly assess and realize every culture faces the same moral dilemmas.

Follow Blog via Email

Adrienne Morris is author of the novel The House on Tenafly Road (selected as an Editors' Choice Book by The Historical Novel Society and a Notable Indie Book of the Year) and The Tenafly Road Series, the continuing historical saga of the Weldon and Crenshaw families of Gilded Age Englewood, New Jersey.
“I write literary sagas because I love people. I love their flaws. I love their dreams and deceptions. Historical fiction allows me to reckon with thoughts and feelings I’d rather not address in the here and now. There’s a certain safety and freedom in placing personal revelations one hundred years behind you.”
Musty old libraries, abandoned houses and corsets bring to life the many characters crowding Adrienne’s imagination, but it’s the discovery that people, no matter the century they live in, share the same struggles, hopes and desires (the greatest desire being love) that keeps her up at night writing.
Adrienne lives on a small upstate New York farm with her human and animal family.

The Farm

The House on Tenafly Road Book Trailer

Posts I Like

Copyright Note:

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adrienne Morris and middlemaybooks.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.